The band André 3000 mentioned “nobody has ever sounded like”

André 3000 is among the most revolutionary males in hip hop, and for the reason that Nineties, André has been bringing us groundbreaking, out-of-the-box music. From Stankonia to SpeakerBoxxx/The Love Under, the Atlanta rapper has been round for the reason that days of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls.

As one of many first experimental rap artists from Atlanta to interrupt into the mainstream, André 3000 (actual title André Benjamin) is taken into account some of the forward-thinking rappers of all time. 

Born and raised by his mother in the Atlanta neighbourhood of East Level, Benjamin was raised by his mom. Atlanta was an upcoming musical hotspot in the course of the late Nineties and early 2000s, particularly for hip-hop. As an adolescent, Benjamin attended Northside Excessive College and Tri-Cities Excessive College for the Performing Arts however had an amazing want to make music as a substitute of finding out.

Benjamin grew up on varied genres of music. From blues to jazz, funk and soul, he was spoilt for alternative. Nonetheless, regardless of all of those choices, André 3000’s old flame was hip-hop. In an interview about a few of his early influences, the Outkast member spoke in regards to the first rap undertaking he fell in love with.

Recalling his childhood loves, Benjamin revealed Eric B and Rakim’s 1987 debut, Paid In Full was the album that made him fall in love with hip-hop. Expressing this, he instructed The Guardian, “I started rapping and rhyming in school talent shows in Atlanta when I was 12 or 13, and although I always liked rap’s energy it wasn’t until I heard Rakim that I realised what you could actually do it with it.”

He continued, “He was the coolest, the calmest, and he showed that rap could be fluid, rather than just be a rhythmic attack. But I thought I would be drawing and painting for a living at that time. It wasn’t until about four years later, when I met Antwan [‘Big Boi’ Patton, other half of Outkast] in high school, that I took the whole thing seriously.”

Nonetheless, it was an African-American musical icon that made him respect the worth of pondering outdoors the field and taking dangers. Talking about the P-funk pioneer and Funkadelic frontman George Clinton, Benjamin asserted that Parliament & Funkadelic utterly modified his perspective.

Recalling how his publicity to Clinton got here round, Benjamin defined, “I lived with my mum when I was a kid and she was a Top 40 girl – it would be Natalie Cole or the Emotions coming out of the radio all day long. Then I went to my dad’s house, and he would be smoking a joint, listening to Earth, Wind and Fire, Parliament and, most of all, Maggot Brain by Funkadelic.”

He added, “That album blew my mind. It made me want to learn to play guitar, and its huge range of styles – funk, bluegrass, country, opera – helped build our sound. Everyone was doing funk back then, but nobody has ever sounded like Funkadelic.”

The 1971 launch was Funkadelic’s third studio album and is taken into account probably the greatest LPs of the Seventies. You possibly can take heed to the album beneath.